Tonight I made 16 inch pizza from a 24-hour boli dough batch. I topped it with Neapolitan sauce, cheese and pepperoni then baked it for 9 minutes on the pizza screen. When it came out, it looked and tasted wonderful. Unfortunately, we were so hungry I didn’t take the picture until AFTER we had finished eating…

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

Today we made another pizza from a double batch of boli dough on the pizza screen. There were a few things different about this pizza that made it stand out to me as one of my best ever! The dough was about 24 hours old and had been allowed to rise, refrigerated, in a large plastic container (instead of bagging it as usual). As a note, I remember thinking that I wanted to go a little light on the water, since my batches have been sticky lately. I measured just slightly below the 1-1/4 cup mark on my beaker. I used very hot water this time, too. Also, the dough was left to rise in the breadmaker for about 2 hours at room temperature after mixing and before storing it in the refrigerator.

After taking it out I flattened and stretched the dough to about the size of my pizza screen (16 inches). Placing it in a pile of cornmeal and spreading it around, I ensured the texture on the bottom of the crust that I love. Since I had trouble with too much dough near the crust edge last time, I was extra careful not to leave much thickness near the edge when I stretched it. Next, I topped it with Neapolitan sauce and generic brand mozzarella from our supermarket, with hormel pepperoni on one side and leftover lime marinated chicken cubed on the other. I baked the pizza at 480 degrees for 9 minutes.

During baking I had a couple of small bubbles form which I was able to pop with a knife before the cheese dried on them. When it came out of the oven I sliced and served it. We all thought that the pizza was delicious - better than normal. I really think that this dough recipe is the one! The crust was just thick enough to have a middle crumb of soft, chewy dough and the flat of the slice had enough thickness to hold the toppings while maintaining the perfect bite and texture. If I can figure out how to make this pie every time I bake, I will be extremely happy!

Here are some pictures…

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

My daughters were hungry for pizza and I had no dough prepared! In a jam, with little or no time to rise, I like to use my thin dough recipe. I mixed up a batch and allowed it to set for about 15 minutes. The dough was quite dry, but still somewhat pliable. As this was the first time I was going to bake on the screen with this type of dough, I hand stretched it to size and avoided rolling it.

Once transferred to the screen, I topped it with sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, some ham and cheese. Then I baked it at 480 degrees for about 9 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven. About 6 minutes into the baking, I noticed very large bubbles had formed all over the surface. I quickly popped them with a knife, but some topping displacement had already occurred.

Once out of the oven and sliced, I could see that the bubbles had caused separation of the base dough into two layers over about 75 percent of the pizza! The dough had a good texture despite this with good bite and tender chew. The screen was a boost to this dough in my opinion, giving it a bit of extra crispness.

Overall, the pizza was delicious and my kids were happy again. Here are some pictures…

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

Someone made me hungry for a calzone today, so I thought it would be a good excuse for an experiment. I’ve been wondering what would happen if I used a double batch of dough to make a huge calzone. I’ve also been curious about how it would be to bake a calzone on my new pizza screen. So, I flopped down a 2 hour old double batch of boli dough and began stretching it into a super-sized calzone!

I stretched the dough out to 16 inches to cover my screen as I would for pizza. Then, I spread ricotta cheese onto half of the base. Next, I topped it with provolone, mozzarella, parmasen cheese. On top of the cheese, I layered Neapolitan sauce and sliced ham. After the filling was in place, I folded the blank over onto itself and formed a half moon shape. I pressed around the edges to seal the calzone and used a knife to cut vent slits into the top. I omitted the egg brushing to see what difference it would make.

I placed the calzone and screen into the oven which was preheated to 400 degrees. I allowed it to bake at that temperature for about 15 minutes. When it had browned, I removed it and allowed it to set. Immediately I decided that omitting the egg brushing was a bad idea. The calzone did not look as appealing as the other ones I had made.

Once the calzone was cut, I realized two things had occurred. Firstly, the large open area inside the calzone allowed the filling to slide toward the middle during baking. That meant that slices toward the outer edges were dry inside. Secondly, the excess dough around the edge where it was pressed closed had risen in the oven forming a large amount of dough along the front edge. When I sliced it, almost half of the slice was just dough. Thinking about these issues, I have decided that large calzones need to be long and skinny rather than having large open surfaces. I have also decided that next time I will be using much less dough.

Despite the setbacks, everyone enjoyed the flavor of the calzone. The slices that had a good cross section of fillings tasted quite good. Now I have a reason to make another one soon!

 

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

After the success of my first double batch 16 inch pizza, I decided to try for the same results a second time. I mixed the batch of boli dough the day before and allowed it to rise for about an hour and a half in the breadmaker. The dough was bagged as one large dough ball and placed in the refrigerator.

The dough came out of the bag a bit soft. I’ve been noticing the dough has been a bit sticky lately too. I’m not sure if it is the water amount or humidity, but I’ll have to figure it out next week. Despite the soft texture, it stretched quite well and I was able to get it out to 16 inches quite easily.

Knowing I might be in a hurry for this pizza, I had tried earlier in the week to make a bag of spices in the right proportions for my Neapolitan sauce. This worked well because I simply poured out a can of tomato puree and added the contents of the spice pack and a bit of olive oil. I think I may keep a few of these spice packs in the closet for days when we’re in a hurry.

After spreading the sauce, I topped the pie with Hormel pepperoni, sliced ham, fresh sliced mushrooms and some mozzarella cheese from Dellalo’s. The pizza was baked on the bottom rack at 480 degrees for about 9 minutes (baking on the screen takes longer than the baking on the pizza stone).

When it came out of the oven, I noticed that the crust edge had too much dough in it. This caused the crust edge to rise too much forcing the cheese to slide toward the middle. I will have to be more careful during stretching next time. Despite it’s looks, it tasted great! Hope you enjoy the pics.

View the Neapolitan Sauce Recipe …
View the Boli Dough Recipe …